In 2017, I started a book club for the children in our local homeschool support group outside of Atlanta, GA. Since then, the group has read dozens of books covering all sorts of characters and authors. I’ve been asked about the book club so many times that I wrote a post about How to Start a Book Club, and I’ve started an ongoing list of our Heritage Book Club Monthly Picks.

We run five age-based book groups within our broader support group, and I lead the Juniors which roughly covers ages 8-10 (3rd-5th grade). Going forward, I’m going to share my planning notes for some of the meetings here on my blog to help you create lesson plans for your homes, classrooms, or book clubs. Nothing fancy – just some resources I use to prepare and add interest to our meetings.

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For our September meeting, we read Sharon M. Draper’s Clubhouse Mysteries: The Buried Bones Mystery (Book #1 in the series). This is one of the books from my Black Boys Having Fun Booklist, and I was excited to share it with our group. Historically, we’ve always met in person for book club, but we’re now meeting online via Zoom. For this first meeting of the new school year, I started with an overview of how book club will be run, because we have many new families this year, followed by the following:

Introductions and icebreaker: Each child went around and shared his/her name, age, and favorite “treasure.” The answers ranged from “my family” to “my pet guinea pigs,” to “shiny pearls.” After talking a bit about why those items are special to them, we launched into the book discussion.

Discussion questions: The author has a robust list of Clubhouse Mysteries discussion questions on her website, and I used some of them to keep our conversation moving during the meeting. I always prepare more questions than I’ll ever need – just so I have plenty to choose from and don’t have to get nervous if there’s a lull in the conversation (though that never happens because they kids LOVE to talk!) Our initial questions were:

• Did you enjoy this book – yes, no, or so-so? Why or why not?
• How are the families of the four boys alike? How are they different?
• Explain why Ziggy was in the bathtub.
• What is the FBI, and what does the acronym mean?
• What was the big disappointment that the boys encountered, and what was their solution?
• Describe the treasures each boy brought to the clubhouse.

Kalimba performance: In the book, each boy had to contribute a special treasure to the clubhouse after it was built. Jerome’s gift to the crew was a kalimba. He told his friends that a kalimba was “an instrument that’s played in Africa. My grandmother made it when she was a little girl, and she told me her grandmother had showed her how to make it.” After discussing each treasure, we watched a kalimba performance video. I played about half of the following video:

More discussion questions:

• What was the significance of the first clubhouse password (Tuskegee)? I explained the concept of an HBCU (Historically Black College & University), and told the kids about the one that I graduated from – Florida A&M University…Go Rattlers!
• What was the significance of the second clubhouse password (Nairobi)? Answer: A city in Kenya (East Africa)
• How did the find the bones, and what information do they need to solve the mystery of the buried bones?
• What clues do the boys pick up during their investigation?
• Why does Mr. Greene snooping around scare them so much?
• How does Mr. Green react when the boys come up with a surprise “counter-attack” using the fancy flashlight?
• Why does he start crying? We discussed how meaningful the cemetery had been to his family and the emotional toll that can occur in communities when culturally significant areas or landmarks are torn down or covered up in favor of commercial development. We talked about how difficult the decisions can be and how important it is to attend city council meetings and vote.
• Have you ever seen an adult cry? How did that make you feel?

Overview of historical fiction: This book is not actually historical fiction as it does not take place in the past, but the author does infuse the book with historical markers that I wanted to the children to be aware of. We discussed which parts of the story were real and which were rooted in fact, and I introduced the children to someone who could be considered a real-life Mr. Greene. In the book, Mr. Greene is very upset that developers came to the area and built an apartment building on top of an African American cemetery where his beloved grandfather was buried. In this video clip, we meet Harvey Matthews, a man with a very similar real-life story:

The boys in the book are frightened when they overhear old Mr. Greene chanting a scary song about bones rising again while he tries to dig up the box of bones one night. What they don’t realize is that it’s not a scary song at all. Mr. Greene later explains, “My granddaddy was eighty years old when I was born. He used to tell me stories about slavery and the big house and running away and working on the docks of the Ohio River. He also used to sing the old songs to me. My favorite was, ‘Them Bones Gonna Rise Again’…I’m trying to write down all the old songs that my grandpa taught me.”

“I know it, I know it,

Indeed I know it, Brother,

I know it, yeah –

Them bones gonna rise again!”

American Folksong

Because this is an actual song, we took a break from our discussion to listen to it, and I asked the kids to raise their hands when they hear the same chorus that Mr. Greene was singing:

Discussion questions and wrap-up:

• How does the boys’ impression of Mr. Greene change over time?
• What did the boys decide to do with the box of bones? Why?
• Who actually vandalized the basketball court and why?
• How old is Mr. Greene? What are some examples of how we can show respect to our elders?
• What did the boys learn about the importance of remembering the past?

Along with these discussion questions, the children engaged in free-flow conversation about the book and their thoughts. They shared their own insights and shared opinions about what they thought the author could have done differently along with their favorite scenes from the book.

Ideas for next month: At the very end of the meeting, I asked the kids for recommendations of what they’d like to read for next month. Most of the book club participants are girls, and they made it abundantly clear that they want to read a book featuring GIRLS next month, so I’ll be sure to take that into consideration as I research the book ideas they gave. I’ll try my hardest to use one of their suggestions because I want them to feel that this is truly their book club, and they gave me a lot to work with, so I think I can make that happen.

Surprise follow-up: This week, each child will receive a snail mail envelope featuring a large Skeletal Structure page with a body silhouette and a page of bone stickers to place on the figure along with a bookmark, necklace, and book charm. Returning members already have a chain necklace, so they’ll know to add the book charm on as they collect them each month during the year. Because we’re on Zoom right now, we are working hard to mail things to our families before or after some events to help enhance the virtual experience. Postage is definitely a line item on our budget this year!

Bonus option: In my follow-up email to parents, I included a link to someone reading through the Clubhouse Mysteries series in an entertaining way. The video I used has been removed from YouTube, but I’m sure that there are others. I included it in case any of the kids would like to continue reading the rest of the series by listening/watching it being read aloud – just for fun!

Here’s a wonderful interview with the author Sharon Draper that you could use during your book club meeting or send out as a follow-up before or after your group gets together:

So that’s it! Each meeting is only an hour long, and we filled in the space between our videos with plenty of lively discussion. I enjoyed leading the discussion of this book, and one of my key takeaways for this month is that children feed off of each other’s energy. I led two back-to-back sessions of this book club because our group is so large. The first group of children said the book was only so-so, and several of them didn’t like it. The entire second group gave it a thumbs up, and they all loved it. Go figure!

If you enjoyed these book club lesson plans, you may enjoy reading about some of our other book club meetings:

• Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson
• The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles
• The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
• Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter
• Ansley’s Big Bake Off by Kaityln, Olivia, and Camryn Pitts

Stay tuned to see what we’ll be reading next!

Catch up with me on Instagram @heritagemomblog.